The Ogallala Aquifer across the region has dropped about 325 billion gallons every year for at least the past four decades.
To put that number into perspective, the roughly one-foot annual drop in the aquifer is more than enough to supply all of Lubbock’s municipal water needs for 25 years.
And, it has dropped about that amount every year since 1969, according to High Plains Underground Water District data analyzed by the Avalanche-Journal.